Mike Ashman, Review of Hunt, ‘Wagner im Festspielhaus’

First, the conventions of the book: Hunt’s minimalist style is wholly collector-orientated and may raise a few eyebrows among those used to the strict conventions of American discography. Matrices and take numbers are ignored in favour of a bald listing of date (sometimes no more than the month if a recording is assembled from multiple performances), work, major (but not all) release numbers and performers. There’s a concise survey by way of an introduction but further commentary is restricted to Hunt’s current state of research on a particular release. There are a (very) few black-and-white illustrations of old labels or record company advertisements. Lower case is used throughout, giving the book even more the impression of a computer printout rather than a published, edited volume.